Weaning your baby can be a difficult time, one where your baby’s individuality has to be taken into account. Susie Willis encourages us to use nutritional super foods, and a little bit of instinct…

With three children, anyone's parenting skills are bound to tested to the limit, but with her background as a chef, trying to get her own children to eat well was always going to be the biggest challenge for Susie Willis! Minky, her youngest, was a testing ground for Susie, who wanted to prove that eating organic superfoods, or powerfoods during pregnancy, and throughout weaning stages, could in fact impact upon her baby’s wellbeing. Unlike her older siblings who both suffered from eczema, she was born a very healthy weight, and has never even had a dry patch of skin, a fact which Susie puts down to eating food with first-rate nutritional credentials.

However, Susie is the first to confess that running a successful business with Plum Baby is extremely demanding. It requires personal drive, ambition and sheer tenacity to present what she believes to be a valid challenge to the commercially-prepared baby food market.

“My theory with anything in life is that if you are going to put your mind to something, do it with every fibre of your being," says Susie. "There is no room for error with baby food, so you must never compromise on integrity when it comes to how you prepare it”.

Susie believes the values encompassed in Plum Baby define her as a person, and she’s proud to bring her best to the baby food market. Her label is backed up by her chef’s knowledge of healthy eating and nutritional advice and her mum's experience of weaning and feeding babies with allergies, but she understands that feeding can a confusing issue for carers. Susie simply encourages parents to “trust your instincts and only do what feels right for you and your child. It really doesn’t matter one hoot if your baby doesn’t follow the text book – your child is a unique being, and your ability as a parent to do what is right by your baby is usually spot on”.

The problem, Susie feels, is that too much emphasis is put on a right and a wrong way to feed your baby. She insists that it’s very easy to get it right and has offered Supernanny readers these four simple rules for feeding and weaning infants:

• Make an effort to try and prepare your own baby food, just simple stuff like mashing a banana with avocado or buying quinoa flakes and making your own porridge.
• If you’re worried that a food is not suitable – if you think it might have salt or sugar in it, then don’t buy it. Never give them pop or squash or they will go pop and squash themselves!
• Make time to sit down with your baby and make mealtimes special. If you’re always rushed, then feeding becomes a stressful event and remember, they read every little negative from you.
• Smile, a lot! Sing, even if you are out of tune! Pull amusing faces and remember, you lead best by example, so eat with them and show them that eating good food is a wonderful experience!

Tell us what you think, did you wean your child on organic or superfoods? Do you have a child who suffers from eczema? What were your baby’s favourite homemade weaning recipes?